re: Post your favorite Christmas treat recipe thread

Black Plum Tart with Crumble Crust


This tart recipe calls for Black Plums, but you can use Red Plums, Fresh Prune Plums, Nectarines, Peaches, Pears or Apples.

Need

A fluted Tart pan, a pie crust for the bottom of the Tart (you will partially precook the crust to help set it before adding the fruit), 4 Black Plums depending on size and how closely you arrange the slices, Brown Sugar and Honey Topping for the Tart

Need (for topping)

1/4 cup old fashioned Oatmeal
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon AP flour
1/8 teaspoon of salt
2 Tablespoons Almond Slithers
1 Tablespoon Honey

Directions

Add all of the topping ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix with a spoon until a crumbly mixture has formed. Set this aside until needed. Roll out crust (thin) and form into fluted tart pan (Most tart pans have a removable bottom panel). There is no need to coat most of these pans with oil or butter because it is non-stick, because they are usually Teflon coated. If your tart pan is not non-stick, coat it with butter.

Do not pierce the crust with a fork. If there are holes in your crust, the juice from the plums will pass through and cook under the crust, ruining it as the tart cooks. However, it is important to keep the crust flat – here is how I do that.
Cut a circle out of parchment paper and place over the crust. Dump dried beans over the crust to keep it flat while pre-cooking. Pre-cook the crust at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until it is a light tan.

Remove the beans and store for future use. Remove the parchment paper and discard.

With a sharp knife, slice the plums - each plum into 16 slices - Half the plum, then quarter, then 8ths, then 16ths.
Slice the plums one at a time and then place them on the crust before the next plum, starting with the outside row and continuing working toward the center until the plum layering completed. After placing the plums on the precooked crust, drizzle the top with the honey, brown sugar, oatmeal and almond crumb coating.

The tart then goes into a 400 degree oven, on the middle shelf, for 30 minutes give or take. The intent is to dry the fruit and set the top. Since the crust is precooked, the tart will be finished when those things are accomplished.

When you remove the tart from the oven, it still needs to cool. For about 30 minutes. It will slice better when cooled.
Serve the tart with some vanilla ice cream.